Washington Vol. 011, Issue 31 - 5/1/2006 - "EVER SINCE
THOSE CARTOONS in Denmark, the rules have changed. Nobody shows an image of
Muhammad anymore." When a character on the animated TV show South Park made that
avowal a few weeks ago, he could easily have been speaking for media outlets
across Europe and North America.
This past winter's Cartoon Jihad occasioned far
fewer robust defenses of press freedom than it did craven surrenders to the
threats of radicals. Now, even South Park, Comedy Central's irreverent
powerhouse, has felt the backlash.

Sometime in March, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker approached
network executives with their idea for an episode satirizing the Danish cartoon
spat. Could they depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad on screen? No way, came the
immediate reply. True, Comedy Central had allowed South Park to broadcast a
Muhammad character five years earlier, in the episode "Super Best Friends." But
that episode debuted on July 4, 2001--just before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "A
lot changed two months later," one source close to the show told me, explaining
the network's decision. "It's a vastly different world that we live in right
now." Yes: a world where terrorists apparently have veto power over American
television. Read it all

Comments

The Cartoon Wars Are Over

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.Abraham Lincoln

Washington Vol. 011, Issue 31 - 5/1/2006 - "EVER SINCE
THOSE CARTOONS in Denmark, the rules have changed. Nobody shows an image of
Muhammad anymore." When a character on the animated TV show South Park made that
avowal a few weeks ago, he could easily have been speaking for media outlets
across Europe and North America.
This past winter's Cartoon Jihad occasioned far
fewer robust defenses of press freedom than it did craven surrenders to the
threats of radicals. Now, even South Park, Comedy Central's irreverent
powerhouse, has felt the backlash.

Sometime in March, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker approached
network executives with their idea for an episode satirizing the Danish cartoon
spat. Could they depict the Muslim prophet Muhammad on screen? No way, came the
immediate reply. True, Comedy Central had allowed South Park to broadcast a
Muhammad character five years earlier, in the episode "Super Best Friends." But
that episode debuted on July 4, 2001--just before the 9/11 terrorist attacks. "A
lot changed two months later," one source close to the show told me, explaining
the network's decision. "It's a vastly different world that we live in right
now." Yes: a world where terrorists apparently have veto power over American
television. Read it all